I have had my road bike a couple of months now and am averaging around 28-29kph on a 60k ride with hills included. My best is 30.4kph to date on the way to work. I am cycling 30k per day 5 days, and 130k social rides at weekends and loving it.

With all that in mind I just wanted to know how long it took other riders to improved their average speeds and how long it took to acheive it. I would love to read some examples of how much quicker you are now compared to when you started and how long it took. An idea of what I may be capable of in a realistic timeframe would be a great motivator.

Hmm, yes, on the road bike my long term average riding speed on Audax rides of 200-300kms has been 27 kmh. I may be able to do up to a 30kmh average speed for shorter rides (40-80kms) and/or flatter rides, but not on the tourer. So a 27-29kmh average is very good for someone just starting out. I'm guessing you're a whippersnapper, not on the wrong side of 50 like me.

Schmenz wrote:i have convinced myself they are just doing flats as no matter how hard i try im doing well if its 20!

20miles/hr?

No sogood, she means 20k/hr. But Schmenz is working on it. The lack of riding that I am doing right now means I should be able to keep up with Schmenz

yea 20km/hr. im slow i can easily hit 50/70 on a downhill and mid 30s on flats but its the hills that kill me. when my compact arrives that should change things a bit.

sogood.... how else did you think i could do 2 laps of the RNP!

my only excuse is that i have a tiny little engine. i see the big beefy 6ft people passing me and my engine gets super jealous all that leg leverage and extra power and torque. vroooommm. im like a little 1.3L hatchback competing with v8 utes!

I have been riding for about 15 months now and proving you are doing time on the bike your average will increase due to fitness. I started at 89kg's and now at 76kg's so that alone will make a big difference. Shallow climbs of 3% grade I struggled at 15/16 kph. I now can go up them at around 25/27kph. You have to spend time on the bike and push hard every now and then.

Last year I did 100km rides averaging 28kph and just recently finished the Bris to Gold Coast 100km ride at 36kph average so you may improve if you put the time in.

il padrone wrote:Hmm, yes, on the road bike my long term average riding speed on Audax rides of 200-300kms has been 27 kmh. I may be able to do up to a 30kmh average speed for shorter rides (40-80kms) and/or flatter rides, but not on the tourer. So a 27-29kmh average is very good for someone just starting out. I'm guessing you're a whippersnapper, not on the wrong side of 50 like me.

sogood wrote:[quote="Schmenz"]i have convinced myself they are just doing flats as no matter how hard i try im doing well if its 20!

20miles/hr?

No sogood, she means 20k/hr. But Schmenz is working on it. The lack of riding that I am doing right now means I should be able to keep up with Schmenz

yea 20km/hr. im slow i can easily hit 50/70 on a downhill and mid 30s on flats but its the hills that kill me. when my compact arrives that should change things a bit.

sogood.... how else did you think i could do 2 laps of the RNP!

my only excuse is that i have a tiny little engine. i see the big beefy 6ft people passing me and my engine gets super jealous all that leg leverage and extra power and torque. vroooommm. im like a little 1.3L hatchback competing with v8 utes![/quote]Funny how the grass is always greener - the light weight ladies scooting up a hill make me envious.

il padrone wrote:Hmm, yes, on the road bike my long term average riding speed on Audax rides of 200-300kms has been 27 kmh. I may be able to do up to a 30kmh average speed for shorter rides (40-80kms) and/or flatter rides, but not on the tourer. So a 27-29kmh average is very good for someone just starting out. I'm guessing you're a whippersnapper, not on the wrong side of 50 like me.

Do some research via the web on training protocols. A lot of people work on the "go hard or go home principle". I did and so did a lot of my generation. I'm 52.

I remember a mate telling me one arvo during a ride twenty years ago that he'd been reading an article in the New Scientist and it was talking about how the body improved through LSD (long slow distance) training. I was totally perplexed and couldn't believe it but years later when I became qualified to coach in a non cycling sport, it started to make sense. I don't know much about the training regimes or the sports physiology of cycling but there a number similarities between many sports.

In a nutshell, a lot of coaches treat "work" i.e. training as being like a letter that you mail to your self. Improvement, your letter, is usually returned in 10 to 14 days. This is dependant on what work your doing i.e. easy/hard etc.. The other standard is the cycle you work off. The most common is a 4 week cycle. You build for three and recover for one and so on. Each cycle takes the improvement from the last and builds on it.

A lot of my generation just believed that you went out and flogged yourself, day in day out. That's how we thought you improved, by getting used to it. How wrong we were. Training smarter will help you get much better improvement which allows you to build your fitness, layer upon layer.

My only bit of training advice is to never underestimate the benefits of recovery training.

dclnmurray wrote:I have been riding for about 15 months now and proving you are doing time on the bike your average will increase due to fitness. I started at 89kg's and now at 76kg's so that alone will make a big difference. Shallow climbs of 3% grade I struggled at 15/16 kph. I now can go up them at around 25/27kph. You have to spend time on the bike and push hard every now and then.

Last year I did 100km rides averaging 28kph and just recently finished the Bris to Gold Coast 100km ride at 36kph average so you may improve if you put the time in.

Cheers

Dave

Thanks for all your comments really interesting reading. Seems I am doing ok for a beginner it seems. I am 41 years old btw, 76kg.

I also just started riding in a group and when they pick up the pace I get dropped very quickly even by the older retired riders

100k at 28k seems realistic for me at present, I would be so happy to up that to 36kph in a year that would be real progress and feel I could ride comfortably at the front of any group at that pace.

I wonder what the averages are for A, B, C & D class riders? Anybody any ideas?

my only excuse is that i have a tiny little engine. i see the big beefy 6ft people passing me and my engine gets super jealous all that leg leverage and extra power and torque. vroooommm. im like a little 1.3L hatchback competing with v8 utes!

My wife says this to me when we are running - she is around 49-50kg and I'm about 90ish ( ).

She is always saying my legs are longer than hers - I tell her to put on a 40kg packpack and tell me how much longer she would want her legs to be to compensate....

C Grade in Canberra on a flat (as flat as it gets anyway) road race will typically have an average speed of around 38kmh, crits are about the same speed or maybe a little faster 39-40kmh. Hilly road race I think average speeds are usually a bit over 30kmh. D grade is not much slower, only 1 or 2 kmh difference usually.

Those speeds really depend on the prevailing weather conditions so they are pretty arbitrary, but it gives you a bit of an idea. They are also bunch speeds so are significantly faster than solo speeds.

my only excuse is that i have a tiny little engine. i see the big beefy 6ft people passing me and my engine gets super jealous all that leg leverage and extra power and torque. vroooommm. im like a little 1.3L hatchback competing with v8 utes!

My wife says this to me when we are running - she is around 49-50kg and I'm about 90ish ( ).

She is always saying my legs are longer than hers - I tell her to put on a 40kg packpack and tell me how much longer she would want her legs to be to compensate....

true that.

but then if you took some items out of your backpack, things would get easier..

my legs wont get longer unless i ride with platform shoes on... now theres an idea..

Used to ride at 21kph 5-6 months ago. Have been steadily increasing every month, and the last ride I did to the Gold Coast, I did 33kph. Hoping to maintain now on my rides above 28kph or more. It's doable. My formulae for success.

1) Ride more often.2) Ride with faster riders and push to keep up as much as you can.3) Ride to work (go easy - this is either for recovery or building fitness at 60-70% max heart rate).4) Do intervals on rides.5) Hold faster speeds for longer during your intervals.6) Do hills. Repeats.7) Rest. Eat well. Repeat all the above.

Ride and eat well enough, you'll lose some weight too, which will help with the speed too.

lammy wrote:I have had my road bike a couple of months now and am averaging around 28-29kph on a 60k ride with hills included. My best is 30.4kph to date on the way to work. I am cycling 30k per day 5 days, and 130k social rides at weekends and loving it.

With all that in mind I just wanted to know how long it took other riders to improved their average speeds and how long it took to acheive it. I would love to read some examples of how much quicker you are now compared to when you started and how long it took. An idea of what I may be capable of in a realistic timeframe would be a great motivator.

It all depends on the course you are riding, and what you mean by "hills". Avg speed is pretty much meaningless when trying to compare two different rides (over different routes). Even the weather can have a huge impact (such as a massive headwind or tailwind). That said, 28-29kmh avg speed as a solo rider is pretty good by any measure. I've been cycling now for 3 years, dropped from 98kg to 82kg.for my regular commute I am averaging between 24 to 28km/h depending on conditions. I am putting in the same effort for each ride, but some days you get every red light and that really kills the avg speed, other times you get nasty headwinds, and sometimes all the ducks line up and you get a massive tailwind, all green lights and no traffic!. There is nothing you can do about it, so I don't treat the commute as something where I too concerned about my speed or time. It takes as long as it takes (but those days where it all just works out are great!).

On my weekend rides, avg speed is only a useful measure if I am riding the exact same route under the exact same conditions. This is rarely the case, but riding solo I tend to average around 27km/h on a hilly course (such as this one: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/76801453)

i have only been riding for about 10 months now. started out with an avg of only 20km/h just. with the brissy to coast i did it with an avg of 26.7km/h. now im no light weight either at 115kg (ex rugby player ) but i ride almost everyday even if i only have time for a quick 15km ride. and ive lost some weight and got the avg up.so wont take you long IMO.

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